Understanding local public responses to a high- voltage transmission power line proposal in South-West England: Investigating the role of life-place trajectories and project-related factors Submitted by Etienne Benjamin Bailey to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Human Geography, March 2015. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. ……………………………………………………………………………… 1 Abstract With a projected increase in electricity demand and low-carbon energy generation in the UK, expansion of the existing transmission grid network is required. In going beyond the NIMBY concept, Devine-Wright (2009) posited a place-based approach that highlights the roles of place attachment and place- related symbolic meanings for understanding public responses to energy infrastructure proposals. This PhD research investigated two overarching and interrelated research aims. The first sought to enlarge our understandings of the processes of attachment and detachment to the residence place by investigating the dynamics of varieties of people-place relations across the life course (people’s ‘life-place trajectories’), thus addressing the limitation of studies adopting a ‘structural’ approach to the study of people-place relations. This research, in a second instance, sought to better understand the role of people’s life-place trajectories and a range of project-based factors (i.e. procedural and distributive justice) in shaping people’s responses to a power line proposal. This research focussed on the Hinckley Point C (HPC) transmission line proposal and residents of the town of Nailsea, South-West England. A social representations theory framework was usefully applied to this research by acknowledging that people’s personal place relations and their beliefs about proposed place change, are situated and embedded within wider social representations of place and project. A mixed methods approach was employed comprising three empirical studies. The first consisted of twenty-five narrative interviews, the second a set of five focus group interviews, and the third a questionnaire survey study (n=264) amongst a representative sample of Nailsea residents. Triangulating findings across the three studies produced a novel set of key findings. By elaborating five novel ‘life-place trajectories’, this PhD research moved beyond structural approaches to the study of people-place relations and made a novel contribution to our understandings of the processes and dynamics of attachment and detachment to the residence place across the life course. This 2 research further confirmed the existing typology of people-place relations and revealed a novel variety termed ‘Traditional-active attachment’. Life-place trajectories were instrumental in informing divergent representations of the nearby countryside which were more or less congruent with objectified representations of the HPC project. Future studies investigating place and project meanings should be sensitive to these trajectories. Interestingly, place as a ‘centre of meaning’ rather than a ‘locus of attachment’ (or non-attachment) emerged as particularly salient for understanding responses to the project. Project-based factors were salient in informing participants’ responses toward the project. A perceived imbalance between high local costs and an absence of local benefits was seen to result in distributive injustice and opposition toward the project. However, improved perceived procedural justice following National Grid’s announcement of siting concessions in the spring of 2013, was seen to ameliorate local trust in the developer and project acceptance. 3 Acknowledgements My upmost thanks and gratitude go to my supervisors, Prof Patrick Devine- Wright and Dr Susana Batel, for their continual support, patience and encouragement over the course of my PhD. I would like to thank them both for their guidance and help in developing my research skills, and for pushing me to strive further. Their feedback and advice has been invaluable as I have progressed throughout the PhD process. I would like to express my deepest thanks and gratitude to my family and friends who have helped me throughout this experience. In particular, my thanks go to my parents and brother, Bob, Martine and Tom, for their interest, support and love. My thanks go to those friends who shared this PhD experience with me here in Exeter and helped me through the ups and downs, namely Paulina, Bouke, Ben, Rose, Rosie and Emma. My appreciation and thanks also goes to all those in the Geography Department and office who helped me out in numerous ways. Finally, I would like to acknowledge with gratitude those organisations that made my PhD possible. These include the Centre for Environmental Design of Renewable Energy (CEDREN) which funded the SusGrid project, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). My particular thanks go to the SusGrid team for giving me the opportunity to attend and participate in project meetings, which I consider an important and highly valuable part of my PhD experience. 4 Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 12 1. Moving toward a dynamic approach to the study of varieties of people-place relations ......... 13 2. A place-based approach to understanding public responses to electricity infrastructure development proposals ....................................................................................... 15 3. The role of project-based factors in shaping responses to energy infrastructure development proposals ............................................................................................................. 16 4. Theoretical framework - Social Representations Theory ....................................................... 17 5. Context of study .................................................................................................................... 19 6. Overarching and specific PhD thesis research aims and questions ...................................... 19 7. Thesis structure .................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter Two: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 25 1. The context for expansion of the UK transmission grid system ............................................. 25 2. NIMBYism and local opposition to energy project proposals ................................................. 29 3. A place-based approach to understanding public responses to energy development proposals .................................................................................................................................. 33 4. Place theory and people-place relations ............................................................................... 34 4.1 Humanistic Geographers’ accounts of the people-place bond ....................................... 34 4.2 Human Geography and a ‘Sense of Place’ .................................................................... 37 4.3 Environmental and Social Psychological approaches to the study of people- place relations ..................................................................................................................... 39 4.3.1 Place Attachment ................................................................................................. 40 4.3.2 Place Identity ........................................................................................................ 41 4.3.3 Varieties of People-Place relations ....................................................................... 44 4.4 Key limitations of research into people-place relations within Environmental and Social Psychology ............................................................................................................... 49 5. Place disruption and public acceptance of energy infrastructure proposals ........................... 57 5.1 Disruption of place attachment and threat to place-based identities .............................. 57 5.2 Place disruption and place change - research into public responses to energy infrastructure proposals ...................................................................................................... 61 5.2.1 Strength of place attachment and public acceptance ............................................ 62 5.2.2 Varieties of place attachment and public acceptance ........................................... 64 5.2.3 Place and project-related symbolic meanings and public acceptance ................... 65 5 5.3 Key limitations of research adopting a place-based approach to understanding public responses toward energy infrastructure proposals .................................................... 69 6. Theoretical Framework – Social Representations Theory ..................................................... 71 6.1 An outline of Social Representations Theory ................................................................. 71 6.2 Social Representations Theory and the study of people-place relations